Shri Pati Padhati

I just completed Hart de Fouw's advanced Vedic astrology course in Shri

Pati and Iyer methodologies.
The course was incredibly valuable on many, many levels.
For one, it showed me the rationale for "diurnal" house systems more
clearly than ever, and how external events may indeed be more linked to
these systems.
The Shri Pati house system is unique. It is not simply Sidereal Porphyry.
The Sidereal Porphyry house cusps are at the "middle" (as at most
powerful point, not the mathematical center) of each house and are called
Bhava Madhyas, with the beginnings and ends of each house calculated by
trisecting the arcs between the M.C./I.C. axis and the
Ascendant/Decendant axis. In other words, by this method no longer does
one sign = one house.
But the mathematics of this method is not the real focus of this piece, but
instead the interpretive benefits of this system. Here are a few:
1. Transits to the Bhava Madhyas, i.e. Sidereal Porphyry cusps, are
considered important events. Times when the transiting planet will most
affect a specific house.
2. There many be -- via a concept called in Western astrology intercepted
houses -- more than one Bhava Madhya in a single sign. If so, then a planet
may rule more than one or two houses, or even none. E.g. in a chart with
Gemini rising, the Madhya for the 1st and 2nd houses may both be in the
sign Gemini, and therefore Mercury would rule both of these houses.
3. All issues that are assessed by house position, such as dig bala, kendra
bala, temporal friendships, and yogas based on house and not sign
positions (e.g. Maha Purusha yogas, which depend upon a planet being in
its own or exalted sign in a kendra), should be assessed from the Bhava
chart and not the Rasi (sign=house) chart.
4. On the other hand, aspects and associations are reckoned by Rasi, as are
many yogas. If a pattern shows up in the Rasi chart but not in the Bhava
chart, it will manifest internally and describe personality qualities. If the

opposite is true, the pattern will manifest as external events. Permanent

chart features, like karakas, again describe personality and inner qualities,
while temporal chart features, such as lordships (of Bhava Madhyas) and
Bhava placement will indicate visible, external life events.
5. Each Bhava Madhya actually has two lords. The lord of the sign
occupied by the Bhava Madhya, called its stoola lord. And the planet that
rules the nakshatra occupied by the Bhava Madhya, called its sookshma
lord. Both lords are of equal importance, and can help understand chart
patterns otherwise unexplainable.
6. The primary use of this system is in dynamic (Dasha and transit)
analysis, as opposed to static natal chart interpretation. In other words, in
order to delineate a Dasha period accurately, it is valuable to examine both
the Permanent (Rasi based) and Temporal (Bhava based) factors
pertaining to the planet who's period is running.